Today AdWords is almost synonymous with digital advertising—most marketers are aware of or already using AdWords to target their audience with ads online. But because that can be a crowded space, how can you optimize your advertising over time? Generating more leads from Google AdWords can be tough once you reach a certain threshold. In this blog I will walk you through four tactics that will allow you to break through that plateau and scale your AdWords lead generation.

1. Implement Single Keyword Ad Groups

Most advertisers place 10 or even 20 keywords in each ad group. But it is very difficult to write an advertisement that is relevant to all of the keywords within the ad group. The result is a poor match between what users are searching for and your ads, which yields lower CTRs, less traffic, and fewer leads.

Instead, place each of your keywords within their own ad group. Because only one keyword will trigger your ad, you can write highly specific adverts.

To implement single keyword ad groups, add each keyword into an ad group in all three match types, as shown below.

Then, create highly specific ads for each of your ad groups. You can do this using this simple template:

Headline 1: Include your keywords

Headline 2: Features and benefits

Display URL: Include your keywords

Description: Features and benefits + Call to action.

Here is an example of how this would work for the keywords “Business Car Leasing.”

You can see here that the advertiser included the keyword in the headline and the display URL. They used the rest of the copy to mention features and benefits and then included a strong call to action that directs consumers what action to take next.

2. Use Dynamic Text Insertion for More Relevant Landing Pages

One little-known feature within AdWords is called dynamic text insertion, which allows you to change the text on your landing page. This is an effective way to make your landing pages more aligned to what users are searching for and, therefore, increase the conversion rates and the number of leads being generated.

Here is an example of how you can use this feature to change the name of the location within the landing page to make it appear more relevant:

While the campaign is no longer active, in this example when a visitor lands on the page with this URL: http://www.innovateyourhome.co.uk/new-boiler-location-1/?Kw=London, the visitor will see that the page headline reads “We are the number 1 choice for boilers in London.”

However, if the location URL changes so that it reads: http://www.innovateyourhome.co.uk/new-boiler-location-1/?Kw=Leeds, the visitor will see a page headline that reads “We are the number 1 choice for boilers in Leeds.”

Changing the location is just one way to make your landing pages more relevant.

You could change other ad details, such as the type of product. For example, you could change the page above from “new boiler” to “new combi boiler.”

3. Add the New “Text Me” Ad Extension So People Can Directly Text You From Your Ads

Google added a new advert extension towards the end of 2016 that allows searchers to text advertisers from their adverts.

Here is an example of an advertiser using this extension.

You can implement this within the ad extensions section of your AdWords account.

Step 3. Enter the name of your business and the phone number that you would like to receive texts on.

In the “extensions text” box, enter the message that you want people to see alongside your ads and then in the “message text,” enter the message that users will text you with.

Step 4. Click “save” and you should see your extensions appear next to your adverts within Google’s search results.

4. Geo Target Your Ads to Generate 21.9% More Leads

Converting your national and regional campaigns to local campaigns is an effective way to lower your cost per lead and generate more leads. Studies by Clicteq have shown that geotargeting can increase the number of leads by 21.9% and decrease the cost per lead by 38.5%.

As shown in #2 above, geotargeting is where you display the name of the location where the advert appears within the advert copy. For example, here is a geotargeted ad aimed at York, showing the location within the ad copy.

Take these three steps to implement geotargeting:

Step 1. Duplicate your national or regional campaign and then change the location that it is targeted at to a city that was within your national or regional campaign.

Step 2. Edit the ad copy to reflect the name of the city the ads are targeted at. For the best results, place the name of the location within the headline of your ad copy and in the display URL.

Step 3. Finally, exclude the city that your geotargeted campaign is targeting from your national campaign so that your generic national ads are not shown in that location

If you are struggling to generate more leads with AdWords, these four tactics can help. If you do nothing else, implement single keyword ad groups as they are one of the most effective, yet underused, tactics for generating more leads.

Do you have any tactics to add to the list? If you have any questions about this article or additions, please feel free to leave a comment below.

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